In this companion resource to The Sacred Search, Gary Thomas helps dating and engaged couples work through the critical issues and questions they must address before they decide to marry. The Sacred Search Couple’s Conversation Guide features 9 sessions of biblical study for couples, as well as a pastor/counselor’s premarital plan for walking a couple through the guide.

The The Sacred Search: What If It’s Not about Who You Marry, But Why? is available for $2.99 for a limited time. I have read this book and it is one of the better books dealing with dating or courting relationships. It does not go off into the extremes of patriarchy where the father picks the fellow for his daughter nor does it leave couples floundering around hoping that dating gets them the “perfect” marriage partner.

What if you stopped looking for a “soul mate” and started looking for a “sole mate”—someone who will live out with you the great purpose of God? What if dating isn’t about finding “the one” but making a wise choice so you can better serve the One who loves you most? What if God didn’t design relationships to make you happy but to make you holy?

In The Sacred Search, Gary Thomas will transform the way you look at romantic relationships. Whether you are single, dating, or engaged, Gary’s unique perspective on dating will prepare you for a satisfying, spiritually enriching marriage even before you walk down the aisle. As Gary reminds us, a good marriage is not something you find—it’s something you make.

Paul David Tripp expertly traverses the deepest recesses of the human heart and compassionately invites fellow Christian travelers to journey with him into God’s bigger kingdom.

The author promises readers that they will be encouraged, excited, and motivated by hope as they learn how to set aside their “little kingdom” attachments which can expertly masquerade within the church as Christian activism, legalism, emotionalism, formalism, creedalism, and externalism; in favor of God’s expansive and soul-freeing eternal quest. Tripp demonstrates through sound biblical principles how humanity is made by God to transcend far beyond the mere physical realm and is likewise created to be “glory junkies;” those whose visionary lives are governed by God’s grand purposes rather than existing only within their narrow self-interested confines.

Writes the author, “It is a fundamental denial of your humanity to narrow the size of your life to the size of your own existence, because you were created to be an ‘above and more’ being. You were made to be transcendent.” Tripp then shows Christians how to “transcend” through daily, moment-by-moment, practical methodology that transforms individuals into the image of Christ. It is within this purpose-driven framework, this “Quest for More”, that Paul Tripp compels believers to see beyond the worldly deception of personal achievement, success, materialism, in order to break free from this ungodly fulfillment that is too easily satisfied with a mediocre walk with Christ. Instead the author invites committed sojourners to a life characterized by an unyielding passion that pursues God simply for the pleasure of his glorious company and in the process, affect eternal change in a hurting, hopeless world.

Author Frank Viola gives readers language for all they knew was missing in their modern church experience. He believes that many of today’s congregations have shifted from God’s original intent for the church. As a prominent leader of the house church movement, Frank is at the forefront of a revolution sweeping through the body of Christ. A change that is challenging the spiritual status quo and redefining the very nature of church. A movement inspired by the divine design for authenticity community. A fresh concept rooted in ancient history and in God Himself.

Join Frank as he shares God’s original intent for the church, where the body of Christ is an organic, living, breathing organism. A church that is free of convention, formed by spiritual intimacy, and unbound by four walls.

Pagan Christianity? Frank Viola and George Barna was a book I reviewed back in 2008 when I first started this website. While I didn’t agree with everything in the book it was a good impetus to go back and see what exactly the Bible does say about church, worship and living as believers. I’m sure Reimagining Church will be similar with points that line up with Scripture and make you think and points that takes things to far. But then if you don’t think about these things then you are not truly being Berean (Acts 17:11).

He snapped at her during breakfast. She brought up a past mistake. He walked out angry. She left without saying good-bye. An ordinary day in an ordinary marriage. But what if things could be different? What if the moments that seem the most ordinary moments of annoyance, conflict, pain, or cold indifference could become moments in which you’re able to understand God’s incredible agenda for love and begin to do something new?

Winston T. Smith, drawing on his extensive experience as a marriage counselor, offers a simple yet powerful prescription for changing your marriage. He shows how examining the everyday disappointments and irritations in your marriage will help you understand yourself, your spouse, and your need for God’s love. Change begins with seeing day-to-day interactions from a different perspective, taking simple steps to love one another more effectively, and then learning how to take those steps over and over again. Interactions that used to devolve into pointless annoyances and fights can become an opportunity for God’s activity and love to become increasingly evident and powerful.

The principles in this book will take your marriage to extraordinary places and lead you into a deeper relationship with an extraordinary God. Don’t settle for an ordinary marriage, learn to live out God’s extraordinary love in your most intimate relationship.
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Winston T. Smith, M.Div., is a counselor and faculty member at the Christian Counseling & Educational Foundation (CCEF) and has extensive experience as a marriage and family counselor. In addition to the Marriage Matters book, he is also the author of two Marriage Matters companion products: Marriage Matters Manual Facilitators Guide, and Marriage Matters Study Guide. Additionally, he is the author of the minibooks Divorce Recovery: Growing and Healing God’s Way; Help for Stepfamilies: Avoiding the Pitfalls and Learning to Love; It’s All About Me: The Problem with Masturbation; and Who Does the Dishes? Decision Making in Marriage.

The Gospel Focus of Charles Spurgeon is a passionate call for all Christians to follow Spurgeon in maintaining the proper balance between divine sovereignty in salvation and fiery passion in spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Stress. It’s part of our everyday lives, sometimes as the spark that keeps us moving forward and sometimes as the avalanche that threatens to bury us. Chances are, since this book’s title has caught your eye, you are looking for some relief from stress, or at least hope that relief is possible.

In this thoroughly revised and updated edition of Help for Women Under Stress, originally published in 1986, Randy and Nanci offer you both the hope and the help you are looking for. They not only help you understand what stress is and how it operates, but give plenty of useful tips and strategies for bringing peace to the chaos of your daily life.

Your energy is perishable, but can be daily replenished. Don’t waste your life in unnecessary and unwise responses to stress. Let this book help you live in a way that honors God and your loved ones, while understanding and respecting your limits. And let it remind you that one day God will wipe away all the downsides of stress in an eternal world of rest, refreshment, thriving relationships and unending adventure.

John Calvin s name evokes powerful images, most of them negative. In the minds of many, he is perceived as an ivory-tower theologian who was harsh and unreasonable, the driving force behind a dangerous theological system. In this volume, Burk Parsons and eighteen other leading Reformed pastors and scholars authoritatively reveal the truth about Calvin and his teaching that he was humble, caring, pious, Scripture-saturated, and, above all, passionate about upholding the glory of God. Published in conjunction with the five-hundredth anniversary of Calvin’s birth (2009), John Calvin: A Heart for Devotion, Doctrine, and Doxology offers a highly readable portrait of a man whose example and teaching remain vitally relevant even in the twenty-first century.

There is perhaps no greater challenge to our faith than personal suffering. For pastor Ed Underwood this challenge came in the form of chronic leukemia. Though he prayed for and believed in God’s healing, as the days slipped by and his pain became unbearable, Ed’s heart was broken by a simple realization: The God who could do anything was not helping him. Yet a revelation from God’s Word changed his heart and life forever.

In this poignant journey from tragedy to hope, Ed takes a fresh look at the story of Lazarus and his sisters—a story that explores suffering through the eyes of our Lord and His people. You’ll find comfort during difficulty, be inspired to ask for the impossible, and discover a God whose heart breaks with yours.

A surprising number of well-known Bible verses are commonly misused and misunderstood. Whether intentionally or not, people take important verses out of context, and pastor and Bible scholar Eric J. Bargerhuff has seen the effects: confusion, faulty decisions, sin being dismissed, and more. With a deft touch, he helps readers understand and apply sound principles of interpretation and application of twenty familiar verses. This concise high-interest approach appeals to the curious as well as readers concerned about incorrect theology.

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First Things First

The most important fact necessary before reading this website is to examine yourself to see if you are a Christian. If you are not a Christian, much of this would be ‘Foolishness’ to you.
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1 Cor 2:14 The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.
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If you are not a Christian then I recommend reading the following:

What is a Berean?

Acts 17:11
"Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true." NIV

My Purpose

Comments

Please feel free to leave comments and you do not have to agree with me. But if you disagree please be kind enough to share the Scriptural reasons.

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If I have in any way violated a copyright or not given appropriate credit to an author please forgive me. It was done innocently and in ignorance. Contact me if there is a problem and I will be glad to remove or edit it as desired.